The Most Important Question

By Important, Not ImportantSociety & Culture Science Technology

The Most Important Question episodes

July 25, 2023Essay: Haggling Over The Future
This week:
This week: Are car dealers the devil? And why?

Plus, the news:
🇨🇳 Can we build a green economy without China?
🦆 Bird flu, explained
🇷🇺 Russia quits the Black Sea grain deal
🤖 A.I. journalists
And more!
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to Grid Alternatives, an organization building community-powered clean energy solutions that advance economic and environmental justice.
Volunteer your school or workplace to participate in the EPA’s Clean Air in Buildings Challenge.
Get educated about leasing an EV with electrek’s cultivated list of Factory Lease offers.
Purchase fresh produce from your local farms with GrownBy (and if you’re a farmer, starting selling on the app).
Invest in a better world with Impact Assets, and ensure your philanthropic dollars are making a measurable difference.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
It’s time to get serious about bird flu
How long Covid is impacting the Global South
Family homelessness is on the rise, and the Federation of Scientists is crowdsourcing for national policies to increase housing supply. Submit your idea here.
Tornado damage to Pfizer plant will likely lead to long term shortages of medicine great great
Climate
Why the impacts of climate change are escalating so quickly
A new registry could make carbon removal more accessible, and more trustworthy, maybe?
China’s role in America’s green economy
What the warming planet means for the future of pathogens and diseases
Food & Water
Vegan (ahem, plant-based) diets result in 75% less emissions, water pollution, and land use 🤝 🫘👩‍🌾
Manufacturing silicon chips requires a shit ton of water
Russia has quit its grain deal with Ukraine — originally made to avert a global food crisis — and will target commercial ships in the Black Sea
School lunches are now free in six states
Beep Boop
Bots are grabbing students personal data when they complete online assignments. We shouldn’t do this?
Google is testing a new A.I. tool that can write news articles
Secretaries of State are getting ready for AI-fueled disinformation during the 2024 campaign
Facebook messages could be used in a Nebraska abortion case
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

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15 min
July 24, 2023⚡️Electrify Everything: What Does The Pace of Progress Look Like?
Sure, we've got to electrify everything, including 1 billion machines by 2050. But where are we now and how do we get there?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Cora Wyent from Rewiring America.

Cora is the Director of Research at Rewiring America, where she's conducting research and analysis to enable rapid electrification of everything in the economy.

Prior to joining Rewiring America, Cora completed her PhD in physics at Caltech, where she studied new materials for ultra thin solar cells and performed techno economic analysis of new photovoltaic and carbon capture technologies.

Before that, she received her bachelor's degree in physics from the beautiful UNC Chapel Hill.

If you're new here, you should know this is another in our continuing series on electrifying every building and car in America, including your home, whether you own it or whether you rent.

We've partnered with the best in the business at Rewiring America to understand where we need to all go on the whole, what we can do, and how you can get started on your own journey.

And of course, to unlock an easier path for everyone else.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Read Rewiring America's Pace of Progress report
Follow Cora and Rewiring America on Twitter
Read our series with on home electrification with Rewiring America, including our product recommendations, guide to IRA, and home electrification prep guide
Listen to our home electrification Q&A episode
Use the Watt Diet Calculator
Renters! Read our Renters Guide to Home Electrification
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 3 min
July 19, 2023Essay: Farm to Table
This week:
How can we better protect farmworkers?

Plus, the news:
A free online summit for eco-anxiety from RITA
A new era for Alzheimer’s treatments
Inflated prices of packaged food
Saving lives with better weather forecasting
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a coalition dedicated to improving working conditions for workers in every stage of food production, and to the Native CDFI Network to improve access to capital and credit for Indigenous farm workers.
Volunteer to build a climate resilience hub so your community can better respond to extreme heat events and other disasters.
Get educated about how to protect yourself and your community from heat and other extreme weather.
Be heard about building heat-resilient communities and share the Heat Action Platform tool and U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit with your city officials.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
Cost Plus Drugs is utilizing strategic partnerships to improve affordability and accessibility of prescription drugs
Pregnant? The Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act says that your boss now has to accommodate you. Here’s everything you need to know.
FDA approval of lecanemab begins a new era of Alzheimer’s treatment
18 million doses of the first-ever malaria vaccine are rolling out in 12 African countries
Climate
Despite growth in renewables, global emissions from the energy industry are 👏 still 👏 rising 👏 . We can, and must, do better.
How to prepare for and survive during a black out in extreme heat
Join the Resilience in the Anthropocene free online summit from Aug 8-10 to discuss eco-anxiety and climate distress with leaders from frontline communities.
If you’ve (however reluctantly) made the transition to Threads, start rebuilding your following list with these climate solutions experts.
Food & Water
Food industry giants are responsible for plastic pollution (and “compostable” alternatives might not be much better) and need to be held accountable
Some cities are leaving toxic lead pipes in the ground
Need one more reason to prioritize fresh food? Inflation is still causing packaged food prices to soar
A plant-based diet shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a tasty little ice cream treat
Beep Boop
Investing in better weather forecasting could save lives
The U.K.’s Online Safety Bill could cause a greater risk to online safety by undermining encryption
AI could be used to tackle superbugs, but also cause a rise in misinformation ok have a nice weekend
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
31 min
July 17, 2023Transit For A Habitable Planet
Why the hell is America's public transportation so terrible?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Nicholas Dagen Bloom.

He's the author of the subtly titled new book, the Great American Transit Disaster. Nicholas is a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College. He's the author of a bunch of books including Public Housing That Worked, The Metropolitan Airport and How States Shaped Post-War America. He's also the co-editor of the prize-winning Public Housing Myths and Affordable Housing in New York.

This new book, the Great American Transit Disaster (out now) is a deep dive into how we got here, and the overwhelming evidence that transit divestment was a choice rather than destiny, with a lot of actors involved.

The willful divestment over the past 100 years to purposefully build out our car culture today drives a full third of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Undoing it won't be an easy or simple task.

But the good news is, there are multi solving opportunities everywhere for not only less racism and fewer emissions, but for more and better housing everywhere, for better and more plentiful, safer transportation options, and for healthier bodies and minds.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
The Great American Transit Disaster by Nicholas Dagen Bloom
Walkable City Rules by Jeff Speck
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Connect with Nicholas and follow more of his work
Read David Zipper's Bloomberg piece on Nick's book, and follow David's other transit work
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 13 min
July 11, 2023Essay: Why I Don't Eat Animals
This week:
Why don’t I eat animals?

Plus, the news:
Carbon capture is (mostly) BS
Narcan vending machines save lives
The vertical farming boom doesn’t have enough power
Hacking EV charging stations
And more!
Here's What You Can Do:
Donate to the Food Animals Concerns Trust to advocate for raising food producing animals in a healthy and humane manner.
Volunteer with the Environmental Voter Project to turn out more environmental voters for elections at every level.
Get educated about climate-friendly food with this municipal guide from Friends of the Earth, a blueprint for your town to reduce meat consumption, costs, and associated pollution deaths.
Be heard about reproductive freedom and urge Congress to protect abortion access on a federal level.
Invest in tech companies supporting global decarbonization.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
“Dementia Villages” could be the future of home care
Narcan vending machines are saving lives in the opioid epidemic
The risk of dying from breast cancer has dropped dramatically since the 90s, which is great. Meanwhile, maternal mortality rates have more than doubled in some states, which is decidedly NOT great
Big Pharma is suing the federal government over Medicare provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act
Climate
Farmworkers are especially vulnerable to extreme heat. A low-tech solution could save lives.
I’m obsessed with Pique Action’s new YouTube series “Unf*cking The Planet.” Watch their latest video on why carbon capture is mostly bullshit (right now), but still necessary
And, some Good News: U.S. truck-makers are phasing out diesel trucks in California 🤝
Food & Water
The vertical farming boom is facing some growing pains (you’re welcome)
Plant-based is the new vegan, especially in marketing
Beep Boop
A lack of standards in EV charging stations poses a hacking risk that could impact drivers, and the power grid
Congress failed to regulate Big Tech. Here’s how it happened.
The French are allowing police to remotely activate phone cameras and microphones
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
36 min
July 10, 2023How To Live A Happy Life
How can we live happier lives?

That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Marc Schulz, the co-author with Dr. Robert Waldinger of “The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness”

They're the most recent generation of co-directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest study of happiness ever conducted. Marc is the Associate Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Sue Kardus PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College, where he also directs the data science program. And previously, he chaired the Psychology Department and Clinical Development Psychology PhD program at Bryn Mawr.

Now, look, how can we lead happier lives is obviously nuanced, complicated question.

But I don't think it'll surprise you that almost 90 years of data from this study has shown that well-nourished relationships inside and outside the home are a major key, if not, the major key to what you might call a happy life.

It's not money, it's not work or any of these things -- it's the people we relate to.

What can 90 years of comprehensive research teach us about protecting and nourishing our most important relationships in times of radical change?

Whether that's about having kids or about climate change, this is the most important thing.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to [email protected]

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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INI Book Club:
The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
Connect with Dr. Schulz and keep up with his work
Watch Robert Waldinger's Ted Talk
Follow us:
Subscribe to our newsletter at importantnotimportant.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett
Edited by Anthony Luciani
Produced by Willow Beck
Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
1 hr 17 min
June 30, 2023Essay: Life, Liberty, and Solar Panels
This week:
Texans have a huge opportunity to get even MORE liberty — from the sun.

Plus: Diabetes is expected to double, the state of carbon removal, A.I. detection tools, future

pandemic prepping, BEES?!, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ It’s getting hot out there. Direct your city officials to the Heat Action Platform Policy Tool to explore existing heat adaptation solutions for your community.

⚡️Thinking of becoming a nurse? Bless you, and thank you. Here are some resources including FAQs about education requirements, salary, and benefits.

⚡️ Representation in books helps kids build self-esteem and increase self-acceptance. Find kid-affirming books for your family or classroom with a ColorPop Book bundle.

⚡️ Defend rights to digital privacy all over the world by donating to The Electronic Frontier Foundation.

⚡️ Align your money with your values by finding a financial institution near you with sustainable banking services.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
Scientists are engineering microbes to benefit our health and the environment
A new research model is allowing researchers to gain new insights into human embryonic development
The number of people with diabetes is expected to double by 2050 — to 1.3 billion people
Our terrible health care system, explained by a nurse
Climate
Extreme heat will result in $1 billion in health care costs this summer alone
How you can prevent power outages during a heat wave
UK ad regulators are clamping down on greenwashing
Understand the current state of carbon removal (and the need to regulate it) with these fun charts
Can we blame heat and wildfires on the jet stream?
Food & Water
3M is paying out a $10.3 billion settlement for contaminating public water supplies with toxic forever chemicals
Beekeepers are keeping US honeybee colonies “relatively stable” after nearly half of colonies died last year
How real people are being impacted by cuts to the food safety net
Refilling rivers is beyond what rain can provide. Here’s the case for desalination
Beep Boop
Your drugstore is telling Facebook when you buy sensitive items online, like Plan B or an HIV test
Experiencing online harassment? The Supreme Court isn’t going to do anything about it
Do A.I-Detection tools really work?
COVID
When should you get your next COVID booster?
The EU has made a deal with Pfizer to stock up on vaccines to prepare for future pandemics
The pandemic has been linked to a surge in children and youth with diabetes
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
17 min
June 28, 2023Essay: An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away
This week:
Can Apple help improve mental health?
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️LGBTQ+ youth are 4x more likely to attempt suicide than their peers. Help the The Trevor Project build a safer, more-inclusive world through crisis services, peer support, education, and advocacy. Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
40 min
June 26, 2023Essay: The Inevitable Future
This week:
Is the future inevitable?

Plus: A lack of OB-GYN’s in a post-Roe world, some new bills for agrivoltaics, the best in climate journalism, the link between COVID and Alzheimer’s, misinformation, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ Our algorithms and technology are only as good as the people who make them. Empower future innovators to consider the social impact of their work with Tech Shift.
⚡️ Donate to the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank working on solutions and policies to make coastal cities climate-ready.
⚡️ Electrifying school buses reduces air pollution, immediately improving the health of kids while ALSO reducing emissions. Tell your school board about Highland Fleets, an organization working to make electric fleets accessible for all.
⚡️ As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, emergency services are becoming overstretched. Climate Resilience Hubs prepare communities before, during, and after an emergency. Find yours with this interactive map from Climate Crew.
⚡️ The housing shortage is bad for people, equality, the environment, and the economy. Help your city develop, implement, and monitor local housing strategies with actionable tools and guidance from Local Housing Solutions.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
Half of US counties don’t have an OB-GYN. That’s fucking unacceptable, and abortion-bans are making it worse.
Dirty air kills more people than smoking, car crashes or HIV/AIDS, cutting up to six years off the lives of billions of people. Coal (surprise!) is the worst culprit
Endocrine disrupting chemicals could be the reason behind the decrease in global sperm counts
A new report is highlighting how hospitals can address the nursing shortage by attracting and retaining more nurses (cough-pay them-cough)
Climate
A coalition of environmental organizations have the solutions to scale up transmission infrastructure in an equitable way
The US Treasury and IRS have the released the latest updates on IRAs clean energy incentives, in time for Rewiring America to determine the pace at which we need to electrify everything to meet climate goals
Indigenous communities are leading the climate fight as usual, this time with the help of mapping tech to claim their land rights, and stop deforestation
Climate-related start-ups in Africa have received $2.8 billion in funding since 2019
Covering Climate Now has released the finalists for the 2023 CCN Journalism awards, honoring the best coverage of climate change and climate solutions around the world
Food & Water
Agrivoltaics get a boost in the Senate, a climate solution that benefits farmers, ecosystems and the climate
Chickens in Europe are getting dose with antibiotics “critical to human health”, causing growing concerns about superbugs
Sooo what happens if California’s dams fail?
Beep Boop
ICE is using LexisNexis to track and gather information on people in order to make arrests for deportation
What data does your car have on you?
If misinformation actually is increasing, what can we do about it?
An algorithm designed to reduce poverty is doing a bad job
COVID
Researchers have established a link between Covid-19 and Alzheimer’s
A common drug for diabetes may prevent Long COVID
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
25 min
June 09, 2023Essay: Start Over (Again)
This week:
Got fired? Start over.

Plus: More young people are getting cancer, the rise of solar power, new YouTube misinformation rules, getting paid to bike to work, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
⚡️ If apocalyptic skies and hazardous air quality reports are making your climate anxiety a little more intense this week (I feel you), look into the Climate Psychiatry Alliance’s database to find a climate-aware psychiatrist near you.
⚡️ Help spread fire adaptation practices and give communities the tools they need to reduce their wildfire risk and increase their resilience by donating to Fire Adapted Communities.
⚡️ Campaign to speed up the transition away from coal in your community by joining a local team to retire coal plants.
⚡️ While you’re staying indoors to avoid the unhealthy air outside, purchase an air purifier to keep your indoor air quality up to par (got Scrooge McDuck cash? Donate a few to local schools).
⚡️ Learn more about the impacts of air pollution, and read these recommendations for proper building ventilation.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
A new pill for lung cancer was found to cut the risk of death in half during clinical trials, yay!
Unfortunately, cancer is on the rise for people under 50 worldwide, and we don’t really know why, god I really fucking hate cancer
The chatbot “working” for an eating disorder helpline, instead of real humans capable of human empathy, was found to be encouraging unhealthy eating habits. Cool cool cool
This week was one of the worst wildfire pollution events in U.S. history
Climate
Biofuels might not actually be the best climate solution
Reforesting the Amazon could drastically help slow global warming, but there are a lot of roadblocks
Would you bike to work if the feds paid you to?
The clean energy transition is reliant on mines — but young people don’t want to work in them
Solar is growing fast enough to meet global decarbonization goals — here’s a graph as a treat. You deserve it.
Food & Water
Lack of water is limiting construction in Arizona, which I don’t know, feels like a big deal
As global food costs soar, a food delivery company is launching a fund for food-insecure Americans
Droughts in France are leading to water shortages, and the current solution isn’t sustainable
A pretty pretty vital Ukrainian dam was destroyed this week, leading to major flooding
Beep Boop
Could online age verification rules designed to protect children come at the price of everyone’s privacy?
The A.I. boom could be hindered by the cost of operating systems to run them
YouTube has changed its misinformation policy to allow 2020 election denial videos to remain on the site GREAT WORK EVERYBODY
COVID
Anti-vaxxers and medical misinformation spreaders are getting their social media platforms back
Wildfire smoke can increase the risk of contracting Covid. Let’s do neither?
Get more:
Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
Got feedback? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Take a nap you deserve it

Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
21 min

About The Most Important Question

From the publisher's feed

The most important question in today's world of climate chaos, AI psychosis, and crumbling democracy is: what can I do? Your host, Quinn Emmett is completely unqualified to answer it, so he's calling the people that already are.